I'm Viviane and i was raised to have a religion but above all, to respect other peoples religious beliefs.

Atheism can be as good as any good philosophy. After I became an atheist I became more interested in science, I began to value my life more, to enjoy every moment more.

I began to worry more about the preservation of the environment and the health of planet earth. In the past I did not care because I thought the world would end because it was written in the Bible, and there was nothing we could do to avoid it.

I'm not scared anymore. I am no longer afraid of demons, I am no longer afraid of hell, of anti-christ, fear of Jesus returning, fear of my family dying without Jesus etc ... because I know now that all that is a lie.

I do not have to fight imaginary enemies or make imaginary friends, i do not hear more 1 hour sermons, no more songs, no more "sit and raise", no more "open your bibles", no more "applaud to the Lord" no more "a lot of boring things happening in boring places". Today I do not go the boring places anymore.

When we follow these judgments based on sacred books, are we following the will of some God or someone who wanted to impose a kind of social or cultural control and saw the perfect opportunity there?

Ever since I became atheist it has changed my life for the better, so I wanted something to show how I felt about this transformation. First I had the Invisible Pink Unicorn symbol tattoo on my shoulder and now I also wear the The Invisible Pink Unicorn pendant. The tattoo and the pendant are something people can see and identify.

I also try to vocalise my opinion, show that I am strong. Through the Invisible Pink Unicorn symbol you can show the world that being an atheist is something you can be proud of and shouldn't have to hide.

After finding the Invisible Pink Unicorn symbol I enjoy the fact that YOU CAN empower yourself and create change in the world!

Going through social media we found a woman who proudly came out as atheist. It so happened that she has an IPU tattoo on her forearm. This is the story of why Jennifer M from Flint, Michigan wears the IPU symbol.

I will be 54 next week. I was raised in an Christian Evangelical Fundamentalist home. My parents were loving, not overly strict, but the church I was raised in quite literally scarred me mentally for life. I recall specific terrors associated with teachings of the impending apocalypse. Warnings of roaming bands of atheists who would torture believers into renouncing their faith or by threatening to maim and kill you and your family.

As I got older, for whatever reason, I began looking into the history of Christianity. After all, if one is going to base one's life on a belief, one should know the history. I also developed a keen interest in religion in general, as well as mythology, and how the two crossed into each other.

Every single important life decision was seen through the lens of faith. I became a nurse due to this. I got married and had children because of this. There is so much more to "my story", it is difficult to put into words.

Trying to promote brevity here. The use of the Internet truly gave me access to virtually unlimited information. Shortly after my second (and current) marriage in 1996, I gradually lost my faith entirely and admitted I was an atheist. I came upon references to the Invisible Pink Unicorn through various atheist-related links, and the whole concept resonated with me. Ive struggled with the loss of my faith and "coming out" as an atheist for many years. My husband (who is British) has supported me in this, but has not understood the depression and anxiety associated with losing not only the reason and belief system on which you based everything, but your coping mechanisms and relationships with family, etc.

In November of 2015, I met a man who I didnt think existed. What began as a friendship and source of support over losing my faith developed into love, with full knowledge from my husband. This man is Canadian (he lives in Calgary-I tend to avoid American men lol) and due to financial, immigration and other matters, my husband and I remain legally married and living together, while my committed relationship is a long distance one where we see each other a few times a year.

During a visit to Calgary last October, I got the IPU tattooed on my forearm. The symbol is meaningful for me for two reasons: the illustration of what the IPU "character" stands for in illuminating the ridiculous nature of all religion, and my relationship with the man who is the love of my life, because I never thought he really existed.

There is obviously much more to it, but that's the basics. I love the tattoo and the design is simple, yet lovely. Primitive, yet refined. I love it!

My name is Enrique Lizarraga and I’d like to share my story of why and how I got the IPU symbol tattooed on my chest.

First of all, I’ve been an atheist since I was very young, although most of my family is catholic and I even attended a catechism course when I was young. Even with all these factors, I think that being a skeptic and a critical thinker is part of my nature. Because even when exposed to religion at catechism course and from coming from a religious family I kept thinking about the already classic “problem of evil”, why there are people who believe in other gods, and why I didn’t feel anything special at all when I tried to pray or partake in any religious activities whatsoever. At that time of my life I didn’t even know what atheism really meant, or that it was the word which described my lack of belief in any kind of deity.

It’s important also to mention that I’m from Mexico, and while ours is a country with deep religious roots and its people partake in religious activities quite often (and many of them, a little extreme), atheists are not as vilified as in other countries like the USA. Most people who find out you’re an atheist will just shrug and say “meh, whatever”.

When I was in university, I started to read a little bit more into “atheist” literature, so to speak, which helped me greatly to organize my thoughts about my own beliefs, know other atheists and of course, I found about the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

After all this years, I still have strong feelings towards being a skeptic and an atheist and wanted something which symbolised this, and carry it wherever I went for the rest of my life. It was a no-brainer to have the IPU logo tattooed. It’s easy to fall on the clutches of religion when things get hard, and to justify our own success or failure on a deity to avoid any kind of responsibility. Looking at my tattoo reminds me that I’m responsible for my own fate, my action, for the things that happen in my life and the impact I make on people around me.

The earliest memory I have of religion in my life I was around 5 or 6 and my mom was a "wiccan". She had the books, the candles, the peculiar rituals etc. I never really cared about it because i was little. One day when I was around 13 or 14 she woke up one day and decided she was Christian. By this point in my life I was considering myself an atheist. I didn't believe in a higher power because there was no proof. So she started trying to force me to pick a higher power. Told me I had to believe in something. This went on for a couple years till I discovered the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I remember being so excited to finally tell my mom that I had a higher power. Needless to say when I told her I was a Pastafarian it did not go over well. Religion has always been a joke to me. Finally I found the IPU symbol and I loved it. Much like the FSM it spoke to me. Now when people ask me "what's that tattoo on your arm" I get to tell them of MY higher power.

Recently we spotted an Invisible Pink Unicorn symbol in Keith Semples colourful sleeve tattoo. We are always curious, so we asked him about it. Keith is not only a talented singer and songwriter, he is also a very sweet man and he jumped to the keyboard and wrote us this fantastic article. So go get your newly brewed coffee, put your legs up and read …

I was very lucky to have been brought up in a secular household. My mum was religious but certainly not devout or even “convinced” for want of a better word. My dad is a Geologist also with a Masters in Philosophy, meaning I was lucky enough to be caught with the bug of learning. And not just learning anything, but searching with a skeptical mind to find what is the closest thing to the real truth as possible. To quote Matt Dillahunty, I have always wanted to “believe as many true things and as few false things as possible.” Growing up in Northern Ireland I also had the benefit of one of the best schooling systems in the world and have gathered a reasonable general knowledge on a variety of topics including a strong understanding of the details of evolution and the concept of common decent. Luckily, I have never known what it feels like to have any belief in the supernatural from Gods to Goblins including everything else that falls into that category, Devils and demons, fairies and phantasms. I began reading the bible regularly at 14 and was often seen in the pupils break room reading the “good book” intently each lunchtime. After the over 20 years of studying theology and science I have heard just about every argument for and against a creator and have never heard or seen any that have even slightly convinced me that there might be an all powerful being. I have always thought if little old me can easily see the holes in the “big arguments” like the teleological, ontological, cosmological arguments and terrible arguments like Pascal’s wager, then it doesn’t do much to bolster the idea of “creation.” The bible has some great literature and granted can be picked through for some serious words of wisdom but what it does get right I am convinced it gets right by chance and certainly not through divine moral inspiration. From the story of Sodom and Gomorrah to the hideous deal between Zephaniah and Yahweh, most of the stories that are meant to parable “good moral codes” are actually a collection of absolutely gross ultimatums with lack of any well thought out moral code. Of course to people like me it makes perfect sense having being written by bronze age peasants for the most part. It appears to be man’s first attempt at understanding the world around him and it is therefore no shock to me that both the jealous, vengeful God of the old testament and the misinformed messiah of the new testament seem to hit on moral truths with about a 1% rate of success. So jump forward to my 30th birthday and I decide it’s time for this “rockstar lead singer” to in some way express this lack of belief in the supernatural without openly insulting or offending the faithful for the most part. I decided that the Invisible pink unicorn would be discreet and also would open up the conversation when asked about, to allow me to explain my thoughts on the subject without having a huge argument or no discussion at all. I truly believe that the biggest reason most people are religious is a bad case of social conditioning. Mix that with a truly immense lack of knowledge of what the bible “actually” says and you get a nation of the uniformed religious. After all in every poll done in the USA, the atheist community scores highest in biblical knowledge with ethnic minority christians scoring the lowest. I’m sure there are strong social and economic reasons for the latter. I would never blame the believer just the ideology that leads to strong belief. At the end of the day I class myself as a secular humanist who also happens to be a strong atheist as close to Dawkin’s “7” as is possible without writing out 1000000’s of zeros on a page lol. I Strongly believe that secular morality is far superior to a “creator given” set of rules and regulations. I agree with Matt Dillahunty that every situation has a finite amount of possible good and bad outcomes for the individuals involved and therefore each scenario can be analyzed to maximize human well being and minimize human suffering. When we look at secular societies like Denmark “now the happiest country on Earth” and other Scandinavian countries like Finland and Sweden, we see that 85% plus non religious countries have much lower rates of crime including murder, rape and gun violence not to mention significantly lower rates of teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and many many more. Just compare this to a state like Texas which teaches abstinence in schools and therefore has not only the highest rate of teenage pregnancies almost anywhere in the world but also the highest rate of repeat teenage pregnancies. So to cut my rant short (lol) I will say that I am proud to don the IPU on my arm along with other things I care about deeply like my musical and family related tattoos. Atheists and people who affiliate themselves as “non-religious” are the largest growing community in America. I believe that will only continue to grow with scientific discovery and when people learn that their favourite neighbour, policeman, bar owner, grocery store clerk and in my case “singer” have been non believers all along. So I encourage all people like myself to be open with their beliefs and discuss the subject more with others but in doing so be calm, respectful and remember that it is also everyone’s right not to discuss this is they so choose! Instead of “kill them with kindness” let’s “help them think skeptically” with kindness and love for our fellow man. Remember don't be invisible :-)

To learn more about Keith Semple's music go to keithsemple.net or visit the Keith Semple facebook page here

One day we were looking through pictures on Instagram with the hashtag #Invisiblepinkunicorn and found a picture of this tattoo. There are many IPU tattoos out there. All of them fantastic in their own way and this one is by far the biggest one we have seen. We just had to know more about it and about the woman on which it is tattooed. We ended up emailing with a fantastic sweet woman and her reason behind the tattoo and why she decided to use the IPU symbol is very simple. She wanted a tattoo and the tattoo had to match what she believe in (or lack of believe in). She was having trouble finding a symbol that matched it. One day she stumbled upon the invisiblepinkunicorn.org website and the rest is history :)

This is a pictures we received many years ago. There wasn't an explanation to why this man got the tattoo, so recently we contacted him and asked him why.

We were happily greeted. He told us he had the tattoo done while living in the states. There it was a contention and a conversation starter. Later he moved away from the states and the tattoo then has been living a dormant life. His own explanation as to why his symbol of atheism went from contention to "just a tattoo" is that the countries he's been living in has no religious hang ups.

Ela was one of the first people to like our facebook page. She uploaded a picture of her beautiful IPU tattoo. Of course we had to know more about the tattoo and why she got it. This is the story she told us.

My family is catholic but I never felt passion or love towards the religion. To my big advantage my dad taught me to educate myself and search for answers before taking a stand. I soon discovered that it is ok not to follow or represent any stereotypes or beliefs that do not represent who I am. At a young age I discovered science and how it doesn’t go against nature but supports it. How it is driven by chaos in irrational and unpredictable patterns. Today I am a nurse and I love and respect earth and nature. I describe my view on life with three symbols; The Invisible Pink Unicorn symbol, the tree of life and the chaos symbol. For me the tree of life doesn't represent religion.

This is such a lovely story of love and reason. We wish all parents would teach their children to educate themselves and to think, to use their minds.